Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.
and the War Crimes Left Behind by Heather
Wokuschwww.dissidentvoice.org
June 5, 2004

Given
repercussions over Abu Ghraib, it isn't surprising that Washington recently
asked the UN Security Council for another one-year extension on its war
crimes exemption for peace-keepers. The prison abuse scandal is just the
iceberg's tip of Geneva Convention violations by the United States, and
closer inspection could send Bush Jr., Bush Sr., not to mention Bill
Clinton, straight to the courtroom docks.

Back in the heady days of
1991's Persian Gulf War, Commander in Chief Bush Sr. was widely praised for
the invasion's rapid end, but the true battle had only begun for many on the
ground: the United States had dumped 375 tons of depleted uranium (DU)
weaponry on Iraq during the war, despite foreknowledge its radioactivity
would make food and water in the bombed regions unsafe for consumption on an
indefinite basis (DU remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years). And
according to the Geneva Conventions, that's a war crime.

DU is a highly radioactive
nuclear waste product valued by the US military for its ability to penetrate
tank armor, but it's also a remorseless enemy. A region's food chain is
devastated by the trails of carcinogenic dust left in a DU bomb's wake, and
of course, humans inhale and absorb the dust as well; even nine years after
the war, veterans afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome ailments still had DU
traces in their urine. Depleted uranium is also suspected in dramatically
elevated levels of birth defects and cancer cases among those in bombed
areas, as well as in a wide litany of Gulf War vet health complaints.

But the use of DU weaponry
wasn't Bush Sr.'s only transgression in Iraq. US forces also bombed
electrical grids that powered 1,410 water-treatment plants for Iraq's 22
million people, even though the Geneva Conventions clearly state that
destroying or rendering useless items essential to the survival of civilian
populations is illegal under international law and a war crime. An excerpt
from "Strategic
Attack," a 1998 US Air Force document, explains: "The electrical attacks
proved extremely effective ... The loss of electricity shut down the
capital's water treatment plants and led to a public health crisis from raw
sewage dumped in the Tigris River." A second US Defense Intelligence Agency
document, 1991's "Iraq
Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," predicted how sanctions would then be
used to prevent Iraq from getting the equipment and chemicals necessary for
water purification, which would result in "a shortage of pure drinking water
for much of the population" leading to "increased incidences, if not
epidemics, of disease."

That's where Bill Clinton
came in. Far from heeding the dangers of radioactive weaponry, he
contributed to the estimated 11 tons of DU weaponry used by NATO forces in
the 1999 Balkan conflict. Clinton also strongly supported the devastating
sanctions against Iraq that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis. Notoriously, in 1996 when his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
was asked about the estimated over half a million Iraqi children who were
thought to have died as a result of the sanctions, her response was "I think
this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it."

Fast forward to 2001, when
Bush Jr. used DU weaponry in the invasion of Afghanistan. Cities subjected
to allied bombing were later reported to have uranium concentrations at 400%
to 2000% above normal, with birth defects sharply on the rise. Then during
the 2003 invasion of Iraq, US and British forces deployed an estimated
1,100-2,200 tons of depleted uranium weaponry, with untold future health
implications for both Iraqis and coalition service members.

It's worth considering the
future of warfare Bush-style, as can be gleaned by his administration's
funding of weaponry. Despite the Cold War's end, the Bush administration is
spending 12 times more on developing nuclear weapons than on
securing/reducing existing stockpiles or on non-proliferation efforts. The
administration has also repealed the ban on low-yield nuclear weapons,
dismissed international non-proliferation agreements, and pushed development
of the so-called "bunker buster" which in fact is a nuclear weapon. It is
safe to say the Bush administration won't be backing off nuclear or
radioactive weaponry anytime soon.

In testimony on the Abu
Ghraib crisis, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld recently told the Senate Armed
Services Committee, "It is the photographs that give one the vivid
realization of what actually took place. Words don't do it." So if our
leaders really can't grasp pain and suffering without Polaroids, then bring
out the cameras. Bring out pictures of populations devastated by WMD such as
radioactive weaponry, tainted water supplies and the starvation wrought by
sanctions. Splash those images across the media along with photos from Abu
Ghraib.

Because if as a nation we
can bring ourselves to face the horrors inside one prison far away, then the
scope can be widened to consider other war crimes. And when that happens,
Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. will have some explaining to do.

Heather Wokusch
is a free-lance writer with a background in clinical psychology. Her work as
been featured in publications and websites internationally. Heather can be
contacted via her website:
http://www.heatherwokusch.com.